User talk:Quadibloc
Welcome Well, it looks like nobody’s welcomed you yet, so here it is. Some general editing tips: * On talk pages (like this one), you can sign your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~), which the software will automatically expand into a signature linking to your user page. * You’ve been good about writing edit summaries. * You can create a user page to describe yourself. * Type two successive newlines to start a new paragraph. * Start a line with colons to indent (useful on talk pages). * Start a line with an asterisk for a bulleted list, or with a # for a numbered list. * Enclose text in two single quotes for italics and three single quotes for boldface. Ordinary 09:36, 1 December 2008 (UTC) Them Duke Boys The changes look good. --mnenyver 02:35, 4 December 2008 (UTC) :Thanks. Great title too. --Quadibloc 02:39, 4 December 2008 (UTC) :::D --mnenyver 05:59, 4 December 2008 (UTC) Deleting Just dropping a note to let you know -- you can mark a page for deletion with (Template:Delete) --mnenyver 19:12, 4 December 2008 (UTC) By the way... Nice bunch of contributions lately. I enjoy how well you present your theories, even if I don't always agree. --mnenyver 19:22, 4 December 2008 (UTC) Graphical templates Just a general comment -- not a critique -- I think there should be some consensus on an overall look for the site before we get into making big changes with the chrome. What we have now is just the default Monaco skin and some bare-bones stuff that I put up to keep things orderly. So unless we're keeping all this, we'll want to design around a new look. I have a feeling everyone's going to have an opinion. :D By the way, Wikia does not support background images in tables. I understand there's a work around for this, by customizing the css and making use of ids, but I don't know the steps offhand. Personally, I think it'd be easier to work around this and use images as content within table cells. --mnenyver 01:39, 10 December 2008 (UTC) I don't disagree with that, although I wasn't sure about the right mechanism to invite discussion. I reverted my changes because of a technical problem with empty cells (I am using empty table cells with a background color as a substitute for background images; this works within limits, but when I tried using too many empty table cells, there is a tendency of some browsers to ignore those cells); I was not at all sure about how to... invite discussion. So, when I had one of my box styles working reasonably well, I used it for the three header boxes on the front page, but, yes, that was taking a liberty. My current plan is to make available as templates four resizable box styles using the same basic method, as follows: Decorative Box: A golden frame around a dark brown leather background. Decorative Box 2: A rectangular brass plaque. Decorative Box 3: A rectangular cutout window with rounded areas going into the frame for the screws holding it on. Decorative Box 4: A steel or silver plaque, with two screws in the side, and corners with rounded bites out of them, analogous to the original Girl Genius logo. The templates themselves, of course, as long as they're not used on the site, are harmless enough to create. I can add a Meta/Technical page to the site that shows the four templates and explains how to use them. How the boxes are used to give the right feel to the page would then be what could be debated. They could be used for things like the stub, has mad, and cleanup templates, but those are on out-of-the-way pages. They could be used for the sections of the front page in a mixture of styles; this is sort of what I think you were hoping to be able to do, but I may have had the wrong impression. Decorative Box 4 will take some changes to the table design, but I think it will be no problem. Improving the art for the original Decorative Box style will be the largest challenge. --Quadibloc 01:53, 10 December 2008 (UTC) :I hope this is taken well... do you think the yellow is a little, erm, bright? :D --mnenyver 01:59, 10 December 2008 (UTC) ::Well, I will soon be providing other choices. In case anyone is still surfing in 256 color mode, I limited myself to the "internet-safe" colors; also, while this artwork is my original work, I did study some of the Foglios' examples to get an idea of what colors to use. I've created my user page to display the templates and explain how to use them. Soon, there will be other choices. --Quadibloc 02:11, 10 December 2008 (UTC) ::Oh, wait. If you actually mean the real yellow on the left and top sides, yes, I think it is perhaps brighter than it should be, and I'll fix that. I thought you meant the main orange color... --Quadibloc 02:37, 10 December 2008 (UTC) ::Now I'm not sure if I can find a good replacement for the yellow. Unless I abandon the realm of Internet-Safe colors, or just add blue to the main orange instead of increasing the brightness of the red and green in a large step. --Quadibloc 05:21, 10 December 2008 (UTC) Just noting that I'm not ignoring the considerable amount of work you've done -- I'm just holding off until others weigh in first. :) --mnenyver 17:04, 11 December 2008 (UTC) : I had been wondering why I hadn't heard from anyone. I haven't forgotten about the yellow being too bright; I just haven't decided on the best alternative. --Quadibloc 21:20, 11 December 2008 (UTC) Would it be possible to rename the templates to more descriptive names (instead of 1..8)? Argadi 21:00, 11 December 2008 (UTC) : That's a good idea. I had originally planned for the first one to be what number 8 is shaping up to be. Of course, moving any page leads to redirect pages, but the history of these pages may not be that important. Also, since they're templates, the names should be short; so I had thought that a gallery of the styles would be more useful - but a somewhat descriptive name would still be easier to remember. Also, I'm not sure of the words for some of the things I'm drawing. Brass (or gold) plaque box is easy enough, and I can easily make a silver plaque to go with it (my silver may be too blue, though...), but the flat metal frame with four screws in the corner, or the raised metal frame with rounded corners... --Quadibloc 21:20, 11 December 2008 (UTC) :: I've found out from http://www.rejuvenation.com/fixshow1477/templates/selection.phtml that the item I'm thinking of is officially called a "card holder". Although Mnenyver is concerned to make this site reflect as well as possible on the subject, I wouldn't want overcaution to prevent improvements, and I think having only the default theme reflects a bit poorly itself. I don't see any problems with these. Anyway, you've got sysop privs now, so you should be able to start rolling out changes to the UI. ⚙Zarchne 20:45, 9 March 2009 (UTC) :The way the site is designed, I could have changed the front page at any time, as a matter of fact: that isn't the kind of thing that requires special privileges. But I've seen a problem with my illustrative example in my testing: the page is slow to load. I was thinking that putting only, say, *two* of the text boxes on the main page in a fancy style would be enough to give it some steampunk feel to the site. :I do fear, I admit, that only by actually making changes to the front page will I get the necessary feedback to find out what people do want. --Quadibloc 01:56, 10 March 2009 (UTC) :: It's known as "release early and often" and is cited as a secret of Microsoft's success (and the reason why their software with a version number less than 3 is not worth using, regardless whether the later is or is not). In the free software world, "release early and often" is the "bazaar" rather than the "cathedral". ⚙Zarchne 04:50, 10 March 2009 (UTC) ::: Also, I do now see where Admin privileges will, in fact, be relevant - in what I might term "Phase 3" of customizing the site. ::: Phase 1 is what I've done at this point: put some of those new boxes on the front page, to add a decorative gaslamp fantasy element. That required no Admin rights in itself. ::: Phase 2 is to spread this throughout the site to a limited extent by using the decorative box in, say, the Has:Mad template. ::: Phase 3 is where we get into not using the default theme, *specifically* addressing your comment. This involves going into the Admin options to switch the wiki from using the standard copy of the Monaco theme to using "Custom Monaco", at which point the editable page http://girlgenius.wikia.com/wiki/MediaWiki:Monaco.css becomes the stylesheet. Examples exist for aoc.wikia.com and watchmen.wikia.com. (We already have our own Monaco-sidebar template.) --Quadibloc 12:11, 10 March 2009 (UTC) Making the edges of the pages look yellowed would require a background image for the main text area. This can be specified (in MediaWiki:Common.css) but it could lead to things not working right if people display the page wider than we anticipate. As for a serif font, Times Roman isn't a good choice, as it is still too modern, and there aren't many other universal choices that would look the same on any browser. Plus, I don't see any examples of that in this wiki to work from! So I'm very hesitant to specify Georgia for everything... --Quadibloc 11:01, 11 March 2009 (UTC) :As is visible, I have found out how the font could be changed. --Quadibloc 07:15, 12 March 2009 (UTC) :Note that I certainly can change it back if there are objections. After initially changing the font, I found that the font change did not appear on Linux machines. I have taken steps to cause a serif font to appear on those as well, but the font that appears may be too small. Also, while Georgia doesn't have that problem for Windows, and is widely available, it may not be the best choice of style. (I do think that Times Roman is too obviously modern to be an improvement on sans-serif for suitability to topic.) --Quadibloc 13:25, 14 March 2009 (UTC) :Thanks for the positive feedback in the Shout Box. I'm still suspicious that the font change may be a change too far. I noticed it leads to an excessively small font in the edit box on the 'Create New Page' box, where I created the new comestible page Madeleine. :Also, I hope that moving the main page to the 'standard' location of Girl Genius Wiki, but suppressing that title, and using an image for the title that won the voting is considered to be respectful of the outcome of that vote, and will not generate controversy. :I am hoping for feedback from other participants in this wiki. Some of what I've added is, I think, not too extravagant as it follows the way a lot of the other wikis in Wikia work, so it simply brings our page up to the status of one with a few customizations. But my original change, the graphical templates, is something unique. It is intended to provide a "gaslamp fantasy" feel, but others here might be better artists than I am. --Quadibloc 01:09, 15 March 2009 (UTC) :: Feedback: It looks nice, and doesn't get in my way. I get annoyed with ugly images and layout (and that isn't happening with your changes) and very annoyed with fancy features that get in the way (and that certainly hasn't been happening), but beyond that the layout isn't going to get much of a reaction. I hope you find people who care more than I do and can give you better praise and feedback. Argadi 13:50, 15 March 2009 (UTC) ::: Still, I'm very glad to hear from you. I found on one Linux computer that initially the serif font didn't appear, and when I made a change to correct that, it seems the font is now too small. So I am hoping to hear from users of a wide variety of platforms. ::: The other good news is that I'm pretty well finished at this point. The "The Department of Certainly True History" graphic may be improved somewhat, and there might be some other tiny changes here and there, but at this point we've reached parity with many of the other wikis in terms of customization, and in respect of my gaslamp fantasy frame templates, gone beyond what any I've seen do. Also, no other wiki has changed fonts; perhaps for good reason. ::: I haven't, though, tried to follow Memory Alpha or Age of Conan in using a dark background everywhere, or even followed Marvel Database by making the front page narrower with extra framing graphics. --Quadibloc 15:43, 15 March 2009 (UTC) "Front Page" I wasn't sure about what the problem with tables was, and I knew the item was fully resizable. I'm glad you found the smaller link banner I uploaded useful in allowing that box to fit within the columns. Not at home, so I don't have my cookies with me (but then I remembered I remembered my password). Decorative Box 8 will be improved, I hope my efforts will turn out to be of some usefulness. --Quadibloc 18:41, 11 December 2008 (UTC) :Yes, thank you for putting up the smaller image. It works much better. And yeah, the reason I had to make changes to the main page was to eliminate the tables. Wikia wasn't taking a proactive stance against wikis who interfered with their new ad system, but I didn't want to anger the wiki gods either. I really do wish Wikia would offer ad-free hosting. I would happily contribute. --mnenyver 04:06, 12 December 2008 (UTC) to moderator for new retinas as the neon green and lemon yellow have left permanent scarring BOY that's bright. -- Corgi 05:49, 10 March 2009 (UTC) : OK, I'll get rid of the neon green. I had thought some change of color from the default would be an improvement, but I was concerned my choice might be controversial. --Quadibloc 09:28, 10 March 2009 (UTC) Could the image in Template:MainPageWelcome be placed inside the decorative box? I think the huge empty green space (IE and Firefox) has too much wasted space. See Image:FrontPageGreen.JPG for how it looks for me. Argadi 08:36, 10 March 2009 (UTC) : I'll see what I can do. My original plan had been to put it inside, but I had to use a table around the image for that version. --Quadibloc 09:28, 10 March 2009 (UTC) : I noticed the wasted space problem in one browser; I have now used tables to make that template work properly. --Quadibloc 03:19, 11 March 2009 (UTC) "Yelps of outrage welcomed" Okay, YELP! The front page now brings my computer (very high-speed, with an excellent broad-band connection) completely to its knees. The desire to fancify the front page may have gone a bit too far here... -- that old bearded guy 01:39, 16 March 2009 (UTC) : Wow! Are you sure that it's the front page? I've noticed that Wikia seems to have had some server problems on Sunday; I encountered delays when editing. The most time-consuming thing on the front page should be those fancy frames around sections of the front page, and that was changed a couple days ago; everything else should not affect time to load (added one image, changed colors and fonts). --Quadibloc 06:35, 16 March 2009 (UTC) : I've reduced from four to two the number of fancy frames used on the front page without, I think, overly reducing the visual distinctiveness. We can see if that makes a difference. --Quadibloc 07:16, 16 March 2009 (UTC) : There seem to be continuing problems with the front page. It isn't a question of the load it presents to anyone's home computer in rendering it, or the time it takes to load over a broadband connection, because the page will appear well quickly at some times, and fail to appear properly at others, particularly because the corners of the decorative boxes are not loading. The cause appears to be that these decorative boxes, for some reason, are subject to unusual delays from Wikia's servers. : There are other heavily graphical pages on the site, such as the one for World of Warcraft. The problem may not be in the images themselves, but the fact that they're being indirectly referenced through two layers of templates. In any case, since at this time these boxes are often failing to display properly, and are hence detracting from the site's appearance instead of enhancing it, I've rolled them back. If my theory about the two layers of templates is correct, a future possibility might be to simply copy the decorative box code directly into the MainPageWelcome, LabNotes, and Has-Mad templates, which might obtain good responsiveness. --Quadibloc 04:14, 26 March 2009 (UTC) :: I'm not sure why the layers of templates would cause problems since: ::# The chronology pages use huge amounts of templates and aren't hugely slow. ::# The front page should be cached by the server most of the time, so templates would have no effect. :: Argadi 09:04, 26 March 2009 (UTC) :::If that's the case, of course, that means I lose one way to put the decorative boxes back, and will have to look at other forms of styling. I've considered the kind of wraparound graphics used by Marvel Database and World of Warcraft, but my first attempt didn't work properly. --Quadibloc 12:08, 26 March 2009 (UTC) Site design I should note I don't have plans to change much of your original CSS. The only thing that I really want to change is the bright yellow mustard color. I like having a very small amount of it as accent (like gold leafing or trim on a leatherbound book). — m (talk) 04:34, 31 May 2009 (UTC) Theory phrasing I notice that in your theories, you're writing them conversationally, mixing counter-arguments into the main body. It's hard to know if one should sign off on a theory because it's hard to tell which version of events is your primary theory and which is the counter-argument. If you want to post counter-arguments, you could post them as a completely separate theory or as a response (see Baron Klaus Wulfenbach/Mad), whichever is more appropriate. In other words -- * Theory 1: Chef's pie was lemon meringue. It had a top consistent with the color of meringue ** Response to theory 1: Lemon meringue pie does not require nutmeg * Theory 2: Chef's pie was coconut cream. This is the traditional pie-in-the-face flavor. ** Response to theory 2: Coconut cream doesn't require butter. — m (talk) 03:44, 4 June 2009 (UTC) :Yes, that's definitely applicable now, given the addition of the theory support box. I noticed that seemed to be one of the changes to the way the Gilgamesh Mad page was organized. I hadn't attempted similar rewrites on the pages I visited; I will need to try and do some of that work. --Quadibloc 08:01, 4 June 2009 (UTC) Bravo for finding the key The Ludmilla Pajo link is an amazing find. Yes, it might be a coincidence, but after the Mount Horeb incident we've come to expect depth behind every random name in the comment. Argadi 20:10, October 16, 2009 (UTC) La la WAAAAH! The psycho pink princess is giving me problems. I first updated her mad page to her new name using "La". I then saw that the main page had been changed to use "la", and now I don't know how to fix it. I keep getting stumped and stymied, and I suspect that there's a fairly easy step that I'm either missing or can't do. Can you point me in the right direction? -- Brassica 17:31, October 20, 2009 (UTC) : I'm the culprit. Thus, I recommend that you don't fix it, as I think my version is more likely to be correct. But if you insist, I will tell you how I did it. First, I deleted the Zola "Heterodyne" link page. (Deleting a page, by the way, requires privileges.) Then I moved the page to Zola "Heterodyne", telling the system not to create a redirect page. Then I moved the page to its new name with the lowercase definite article, letting it create redirects as normal. So changing the title of a page is tricky. And I also went and manually changed pointers to the new name. --Quadibloc 00:34, October 21, 2009 (UTC) :: Believe me, this minion is more than willing to keep her grubby paws off this one. But I'm still confused, since the mad page is still missing the "la" in the title. That's the thing that I want to fix, by the way - I have no desire to "fix" the main page, just to get the main and mad to conform. Also, the only reason I started messing around with the mad page title in the first place was that someone had changed the main page title, and the mad link was breaking, because there was no automatic update from Zola "Heterodyne"/Mad to what should have been the new name. But I also have to say that I'm relieved that this is something I can't do because I don't have rights to do what needs to be done, rather than because I'm missing something right in front of me. So, you fixed the main page... Can and will you (pretty please?) fix the mad page? Thank you. -- Brassica 01:12, October 21, 2009 (UTC) ::: Yes; I've moved Zola Sirene d'Or/Mad and Talk: Zola La Sirene d'Or/Mad both back to consistent locations with the main page. (Note that they didn't conform to each other.) --Quadibloc 12:40, October 21, 2009 (UTC) :::: Thank you, and that non-conforming talk page is truly bizarre, since I never clicked the checkbox to say not to move it. As far as I understand it, it should have moved automatically. At any rate, I have learned my lesson. Tread cautiously when moving/renaming pages, because it's easy to get into, and not so easy to get out of. -- Brassica 20:45, October 21, 2009 (UTC) Help Monday's comic has caused a wiki quake. Forum:Naming main articles for female characters Rej ¤¤? 18:04, June 28, 2010 (UTC)